Great Green Getaways

February 22, 2007 - Pure Yorkshire

I am on a mission to recruit hairdressers as frontline fighters in the war on climate change. Every time they ask 'Going anywhere nice this year?' prompting a discussion about the merits of Alicante over the Algarve, I would like them to follow up with this question: 'And what will you be doing to offset the carbon emitted by your flight?'

They can then offer their clients a therapeutic Indian head massage to offset any indignation they might experience at having their conscience briefly pricked. Should your hairdresser ask 'Do you want hairspray with that?', one could always do a little personal emissions trading by demanding that it's ozone-friendly.

OK, so my vision might be more hair-raising than consciousness-raising (to a salon owner anyway) but you get the point. The carbon generated by the aviation industry is a hot topic and likely to become even hotter as the General Election approaches.

Airline Passenger Duty goes up from £5 to £10 per flight from this month as part of the Chancellor's 'green taxes' package to help the environment and plans to gibe airlines CO2 quotas are being considered by the EU.

Why are carbon emissions so important? Because they contribute directly to global warming. Our planet is heating up fast. Experts now believe we may only have ten years before carbon levels reach a tipping point beyond which the consequences could spell disaster. Aviation currently accounts for 8.8 tonnes - around three per cent - of the UK's total carbon emissions. With flights set to treble by 2030, that proportion is on course to rise to anything from 18 to 23 per cent.

The cheap flight may seem like a bargain now, but if we carry on as we are doing we will pay the price later.

All of which makes planning a summer holiday or spring break an ethical headache. It begs the question: is it responsible to take a foreign holiday at all? And is there any such thing as a green getaway?

Yes, says Justin Francis, co-founder of on-line travel agent responsibletravel.com, which specialises in environmentally friendly holidays. The company, which was launched in 2001 with the backing of the Body Shop Anita Roddick, believed it's OK to fly, so long as we adjust our household emissions. However, our pattern of holiday-making also has to change.

'Instead of taking one or two longer holidays a year, plus several short breaks, which has become the norm, we need to go back to the old days of taking one long holiday annually.

'We need to fly less but we also need to be looking at our whole lives. Our houses are a far bigger cause of CO2 emission. If you turn down your heating by one degree don't leave the TV on standby, reduce your car use, take showers instead of baths and recycle 50 per cent of your waste, you can save enough carbon for two return flights to Cairo.

You can also offset the carbon from your flight by buying packages from the Carbon Neutral Company, which invests money in projects from woodlands to new technologies to counter the damaging effects. Prices vary, from £4.45 for a short-haul package up to £35 for a long-haul flight. Stopping flying altogether, even if that were feasible, isn't the answer, says Justin Francis. 'The economies of developing countries, where tourism is growing most, would suffer, so they wouldn't be able to put money into reducing their own.

Since take-off and landing produce the most emission, having fewer short breaks is important. At least by Air.

Travel by train and public transport are other options, or take UK breaks instead. Last year saw a welcome upsurge in UK holiday bookings, notably camping, but if you don't enjoy sleeping under canvas there are many alternatives from hotels and guest-houses to self-catering cottages and caravans.

This year our family entered into the environmentally-responsible holiday spirit by taking the train up to Inverness and youth hostelling around Scotland, a trip that even my husband, who isn't the outdoorsy type, thoroughly enjoyed. We've also taken a short break at a caravan/campsite complete with compost loo near Whitby and stayed in an eco-lodge on the outskirts of Richmond in North Yorkshire.

Aislabeck is an exclusive collection of lodges set in privately owned woodland and meadows in Swaledale. The award-winning lodges are timber-framed and super-insulated with recycled newspapers and are extensively glazed with Swedish glass. They have sedum or grass roofs, allowing them to blend in with the landscape, a breathing wall system, wood-burning stoves and are supplied with water from their own natural spring.

Simon Spence, who set up Ecobuild, the company that made them, describes the concept as 'eco-chic' (the lodges have all mod cons, contemporary furnishings and flat-screen TVs). 'They're as green as green can be, without compromising on luxury.'

He believes the time is right to push the green envelope even further. 'When we first started researching the project, people didn't want to take their consciences on holiday. That was four years ago, but they do now.'

Wherever you holiday this year, be it near or far, remember to take only pictures and leave only footprints and, most of all, tread lightly on the earth. That carbon footprint could be the most important mark you make. Oh, and tell your hairdresser all about it. I'm sure they'll pass it on.